May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. was told by the European
Union’s antitrust chief it has a “matter of weeks” to resolve
a probe and avoid possible fines over allegations that the
operator of the world’s largest search engine discriminates
against rivals.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia asked Google
Chairman Eric Schmidt for proposals to address concerns that it
promotes its own specialist search services, copies rivals’
travel and restaurant reviews, and that its agreements with
websites and software developers stifle competition in the
advertising industry.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, is under
growing pressure from global regulators probing whether the
company is thwarting competition in the market for Web searches.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and antitrust agencies in
Argentina and South Korea are also scrutinizing the company.

Google disagrees with the commission’s conclusions and is
“happy to discuss any concerns they might have,” said Al
Verney, a Brussels-based spokesman for the company, in an e-mailed statement.

“Competition on the Web has increased dramatically in the
last two years since the commission started looking at this and
the competitive pressures Google faces are tremendous,” Verney
said.

Google shares rose $9.70 to $610.10 at 10:35 a.m. in New
York trading.

Android

Complaints over Google’s Android operating system and the
way the search engine deals with travel agencies are among
“other issues” that will continue to be investigated, Almunia
said.

Any settlement proposals from Google would be reviewed by
the company’s competitors and rivals prior to being accepted by
the EU authority.

“Will Google step up to the plate with serious effective
remedies or will it put something on the table which is not
truly serious?” said Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for FairSearch, an
industry group that includes online travel companies Expedia
Inc. and TripAdvisor Inc., which filed complaints about Google
with the EU. Google’s offer “needs to genuinely resolve the
concerns and re-establish competition,” Vinje said.

Competitive Internet

Foundem, a U.K. shopping website, said it was crucial to
devise “pragmatic and robust measures that restore a healthy
competitive Internet” without harming Google’s ability to
innovate, company Chief Executive Officer Shivaun Raff said in
an e-mailed statement.

Microsoft Corp., the largest software maker, whose Bing
search engine filed a complaint in the case, declined to comment
on Almunia’s statement.

EU regulators are increasingly using settlements to end
antitrust probes. Almunia last year invited Thomson Reuters to
settle with regulators for a “speedy resolution” of a probe.
Apple Inc. and four publishers recently offered to settle
another case, the commission said last month.

Microsoft ended more than a decade of antitrust disputes
with the EU in 2010 by agreeing to allow users choose web
browsers. International Business Machines Corp., the biggest
computer-services provider, last year settled an EU antitrust
probe into conduct that may have hindered rival mainframe-software makers.

Adversarial Proceedings

“Restoring competition swiftly to the benefit of users at
an early stage is always preferable,” Almunia said. Google has
“repeatedly expressed” its willingness to discuss concerns
“without having to engage in adversarial proceedings.”

Regulators in 2010 started investigating claims that Google
discriminated against other services in its search results and
stopped some websites from accepting rival ads. While Microsoft
and partner Yahoo! Inc. have about a quarter of the U.S. Web-search market, Google has almost 95 percent of the traffic in
Europe, Microsoft said in a blog post last year, citing data
from regulators.